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Cooperative Human Robot Interaction Systems - CHRIS
CHRIS will address the fundamental issues which would enable safe Human Robot Interaction (HRI). Specifically this project addresses the problem of a human and a robot performing co-operative tasks
in a co-located space, such as in the kitchen where your service robot stirs the soup as you add the
cream. These issues include communication of a shared goal (verbally and through gesture),
perception and understanding of intention (from dextrous and gross movements), cognition necessary
for interaction, and active and passive compliance. These are the prerequisites for many applications in
service robotics and through research will provide the scientific foundations for engineering cognitive
systems. The project is based on the essential premise that it will be ultimately beneficial to our socioeconomic
welfare to generate service robots capable of safe co-operative physical interaction with
humans. The key hypothesis is that safe interaction between human and robot can be engineered
physically and cognitively for joint physical tasks requiring co-operative manipulation of real world
objects. A diverse set of disciplines have been brought together to realise an inter-disciplinary
solution. The starting point for understanding cooperative cognition will be from the basic building
blocks of initial interactions, those of young children. Engineering principles of safe movement and
dexterity will be explored on the 3 available robot platforms, and developed with principles of
language, communication and decisional action planning where the robot reasons explicitly with its
human partner. Integration of cognition for safe co-operation in the same physical space will provide
significant advancement in the area, and a step towards service robots in society.
We are currently developing an advanced robot torso featuring an expressive digital head, torque sensors, artificial 'skin' and agile limbs. At the same time we are investigating novel adaptive control algorithm for save human robot interaction. The BERT torso was developed and built by Elumotion Ltd (www.elumotion.com) in a partnership with BRL. BRL is also designing a new head which employs a single graphics screen. A first draft of the design can be seen here. We are currently calling this head Roboanthropus platyops (flat faced robot man).
An eye-tracking system is employed to allow the robot to estimate the gaze of its human partner and infer the 'state of mind' like intention and focus.
This will allow for safer cooperation as well as imitation between the human and the robot.
We employ a Vicon 3D tracking system to continously monitor position, body movement and gestures of the human whilst interacting with the robot. It is known that human infants undergo a long period of postnatal development which corresponds to the acquisition by triall-and-error exploration (sometimes called motor babbling) of internal models of the body and of the external objects. We are able to oberserve the robot's joint position in 3D in real-time and will apply similar learning systems to enable the robot to investigate it's own 'body' and the interaction with the environment.This file last updated Wednesday, 04-Nov-2009 13:55:27 GMT
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Dupont Building, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY